Danish climate text should be regarded as diversion:WWF

Copenhagen, Denmark - A leaked draft Copenhagen climate agreement prepared by the Danish hosts of the summit should be regarded "as a distraction" from the negotiations which should focus on texts that have been worked up in previous negotiating sessions, WWF said yesterday.

The Guardian newspaper, which published the document and sighted a confidential developing country analysis of it, said the text was a departure from the Kyoto protocol which weakened the pre-eminent role of the UN negotiations.

“The behind the scenes negotiations tactics under the Danish Presidency, have been focusing on pleasing the rich and powerful countries rather than serving the majority of states who are demanding a fair and ambitious solution,” said Kim Carstensen, leader of WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

The Guardian said it was believed the UK and US were involved with Denmark in drawing up the text. WWF has been critical of the Danish Prime Minister for talking down what can be achieved in the Copenhagen talks in recent weeks, and has tracked the growing criticism from both emerging economies and states highly vulnerable to climate change impacts.

“We understand and share the frustration of the poor and vulnerable countries," Carstensen said. "We urge the Danish presidency to change its style and move to a cooperative and listening mode.

"We also believe this was one of the political signals sent by COP President Connie Hedegaard in her opening statement yesterday.”

Carstensen said the draft appeared to go in a contrarz direction to months of intense negotiations on text over more than a year.

“Focus on the Danish text right now is a distraction from the negotiations that have just resumed for their final phase in Copenhagen," he said. "Talks must focus on the text that has so far been negotiated and not on new texts that are being negotiated in small groups.”